How Miranda Got Her Magic Finger

Once upon a time there lived a little girl called Miranda. She lived with her father in a small cottage on the edge of a forest. Her mother was dead. One day her father decided to go surfing, Miranda was left at home. She was a marvelously adventurous girl and she was bored. So she went outside to find something to do.

After a while she came to the forest and her father had told her never to go in but Miranda did not listen. She walked into the forest confidently. It smelt of fresh wood. After she had walked for what seemed an hour she reached a cottage made of sweets. It was very strange. She thought they looked so delicious that she decided to pick one off the house. Just as she put her hand out to pick one an angry face popped out of the door – it was a witch! And when she saw Miranda the witch started shouting “Trespasser!”

“Please I am not trespassing!” said Miranda.

“Oh yes you are, I will make you into little girl soup” shouted the witch wickedly.

“Please don’t” said Miranda.

Suddenly the witch ran back into the house and came back with a huge, green dragon! Next she shouted, “Attack!” to the dragon, and it flew forward towards Miranda. The dragon opened its mouth showing pearly white teeth as big as bananas and as sharp as knives. He opened his mouth and bit her on the tip of her second finger! She felt very hot and tingly all over after she was bitten. The witch shouted, “Aha! Now I have cursed you with a magic finger.”

Miranda was very confused but she thought it was better not to ask what the witch meant. The witch suddenly ran back into the house and Miranda fled into the forest and hid behind a tree. The witch reappeared carrying a huge, black cauldron. Written in gold letters on it was “For Little Girl Soup”. She was extremely surprised to find Miranda gone so she started to look behind trees. Finally she came to the tree that Miranda was crouching behind. She peered behind the tree and shouted, “AHA! I gotcha!” The witch picked her up by the hair and dropped her in the cauldron which was filled with boiling hot water and started chanting some strange and ominous words. Just as Miranda could bear the heat no longer a part of the cauldron gave way! Miranda quickly squeezed through the hole and found herself crawling through a small tunnel.

After she had walked for a very long time she reached a small room. And there was the funniest creature you ever saw – a mole wearing clothes and sitting in an armchair! He beckoned her to come and sit down as if he was expecting her. The mole asked her how she had got there. After she had explained the whole story to him he said, “Well I think we should try and get you home.”
So they walked out of the little room and found a small corridor leading to an even smaller door. The mole pushed the door open and they trotted out and they found themselves right back where Miranda had started, outside her cottage. Miranda said, “Thank you dear Mole.” And the mole scuttled back to his hole raising his hat on his way. Miranda opened the door to her house and went to her bedroom. It was by now late so she climbed into bed and went to sleep. Meanwhile her father had been extremely worried about her but when she woke up she explained what had happened and he was very annoyed with her for disobeying him but also relieved she was safe.

It was school the next day and when she got onto the bus one of the older children said, “Nah nah nah naaah nah! I got a new bike!” Miranda just ignored her. A few minutes later another older child told her to spell cat and Miranda said “That’s easy: K-A-T” The older child started mocking her and Miranda got very annoyed she felt very hot and tingly all over. She pointed her second finger at the older child and a large bolt of lightning shot out. The older child started growing a tail out of her rear end and whiskers started growing from her face – they were large, black whiskers. Now Miranda understood what the witch meant when she said she had cursed her with a magic finger. She felt sorry for the older child, but did not know what to do about it.